


Someday

by arcadesintheneighbourhood



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Love, Pining, Uncertainty, chidi loves eleanor but doesn't know it, deleted scene during best self, takes place during reboot 802
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 08:29:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17321504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcadesintheneighbourhood/pseuds/arcadesintheneighbourhood
Summary: Someday, he would work up the nerve. Someday he would figure out how he really felt. Someday he wouldn’t be bogged down by worries or their circumstances or the grinding of the fork in the garbage disposal.OrChidi and Eleanor revisit the lake after Michael tells him to get some sleep in "Best Self."





	Someday

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this awhile ago, and I was going through my tags and thought I'd post it. I hope you enjoy!

“Hey,” Eleanor rocked back and forth as she gazed up at Chidi. She was pulling at the hem of her shirt and chewing on her lip. Her blonde hair billowed out from her face under the moonlight. “Listen, I know we have to go to bed before we leave tomorrow, but do you- do you maybe want to go to the lake?”

Chidi licked his lips thoughtfully, losing himself as he looked into Eleanor’s eyes. He was losing himself just as he was in the balloon basket, struggling to convey to Eleanor how much she meant to him, losing himself just as he was at their kitchen counter, watching the tape, losing himself at how confused he was about all of it.

Yet, in Eleanor’s eyes, he caught the same vulnerability, in the same Eleanor who sold fake medicine to the elderly. In the same Eleanor who told him she wished she strangled him in the previous reboots. The same Eleanor who had been hard and selfish and unrelenting was now split open, asking him to come with her to the only place they could try to remember what used to have, what they both wanted.  

And part of Chidi found himself wanting to remember, too.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s go,” Chidi nodded with unrecognized certainty. Maybe it was the wine that made Chidi’s inhibitions looser, or maybe it was because he loved Eleanor dearly and didn’t want to upset her, but as Eleanor let out a relieved sigh, the corners of her mouth soft and hopeful, and Chidi knew he had made the right choice. She reached for his hand as they strolled through the air of the warm summer’s night, and Chidi willfully let her take it. He had known what her fingers had felt like from her comforting touches on his chest, from her lingering caresses on his back after their hugs, but there was something about having his hand in hers that Chidi loved. He loved how her small fingers clutched onto his large, awkward ones so firmly, how the gentleness of her fingertips grazed against his knobby knuckles. It was holding hands with her that felt so strangely lovely and perfect, so strangely lovely and perfect it almost made Chidi wonder if there was anyone else that fit so well with him, it almost made him wonder- what if Eleanor really was his soulmate?

(But then again, maybe he was just confused, maybe that all was really was just the wine talking)

Eleanor pulled Chidi gently to a log where they could rest. She leaned on Chidi’s shoulder as they kept their grasp on each other’s hands. Chidi squeezed her hand. Eleanor squeezed back. Together, they watched the dark water ripple and the sprawling trees sway. From across the water, there was the family of ducks whose quacks echoed throughout the neighbourhood, whose calls he and Eleanor frequently heard from their house across town.

Chidi’s drooping eyes scanned the expanse of the lake. Where had it first happened? The possibilities were endless. Was it by the clusters of pine trees, or near the slanted mountain, or on the steps of the cabin that bordered the water? Did she kiss him first, or did he somehow muster up the bravery? The lake was one of Chidi’s favorite spots in the neighbourhood- a place that, in this version of themselves, he and Eleanor had taken walks and had long, intimate talks. It was no wonder he and Eleanor shared their first kiss here in a previous version of themselves.

(And it was no wonder that maybe, just maybe, they would have also kissed here first if they had a  _little_  bit more time)

“Why the hell are the ducks squawking about in the middle of the night?” Eleanor complained in the midst of their silence. “Man, this really is The Bad Place.”

Chidi laughed and took her other hand. Leave it to Eleanor to groan they were in The Bad Place based on the tiniest detail. He rested his chin on the top of her head and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he wanted to tell her everything he had been thinking. He knew they had talked before, but did she really know everything he felt? Did she know he had thought about them together, that he wished they could be together, that sometimes, when he and Eleanor exchanged soft glances on the couch late at night, he felt all tingly and happy around her?

Would she want to?

“Eleanor, it’s not like I don’t ever want things to happen between us,” He removed his chin from the top of her head. He exhaled shakily. “I just-”

But Eleanor was sound asleep, her nose whistling a soft tune as she breathed in and out.

Someday, he would work up the nerve, he promised as he set his chin down on top of her head again. Someday he would figure out how he really felt. Someday he wouldn’t be bogged down by worries or their circumstances or the grinding of the fork in the garbage disposal.

His eyes fluttered closed as he pulled her closer.

_Someday._


End file.
